CHARLOTTE, N.C. – After one day of competition in the 2022 Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships, Carson-Newman swim sees some youthful leadership as they cement various lifetime bests. Thursday saw C-N secure two top-five program times as part of an eventful ten-event night from the MCAC in Charlotte, N.C.
After day one, C-N currently sit in third place behind Queens (N.C.) and Wingate for both men and women, with the women gathering 330 total points while the men have amassed 315 through one day of competition.
"Overall, amazing first day and start to the meet all around. We had an up-and-down morning during prelims but got our minds right heading into tonight's final to give it all we had." head Carson-Newman coach Jordan Taylor said. "Everyone was stepping up at any event we needed and just went out with a "nothing to lose" mindset"
The first night of event finals was full of nearly broken school records and a few new entries into the C-N swim program top five for certain events. The night started with the women's 200-yard medley relay as the Eagles saw the quartet of Kyla Blakemore (Durban, South Africa), Kailee Morgan (Greeneville, S.C.), Manon Compagner (Balkburg, The Netherlands), and Meredith Ginn (Ocala, Fla.) come mere seconds away from setting a new program record as they finished second in a time of 1:41.86.
Their second-place finish allowed C-N to nearly broke the current program record time of 1:41.62 by the quartet of Stansberry, Melhorn, Culp, and Postma in 2018.
In the men's 200-yard IM, it was freshman Henrique Pacheco who made a name for himself. First, he swam a prelims time of 1:50.44 which secured him a spot in the event's 'A' finals Thursday as well as placed him with the fourth fastest event time in CNSW history. Well, he would not be done there as he now holds two top-five event times as his finals time of 1:50.50 places him with the fifth-fastest event time for an Eagle.
The night continued in success for C-N as the men's 200-yard medley relay captured a top-three finish after Nikita Puzevich (Belarus), Thanos Diamanditis (Athens, Greece), Nicolas Lenuza (Spain), and Hobson Stelling (Memphis, Tenn.) finished third in a time of 1:29.13.
Then, in the 1000-yard freestyle, the Eagles set two new top-five times as Rachel Peden (Boiling Springs, S.C.) and Alonso Castro Hablutzel cemented themselves into the program top-five. First, Peden would swim a finals time of 10:21.78 seconds, good enough for a top-five event finish in Charlotte and her third top-five event time for C-N. After Thursday's result, Peden is now holder of the program record as well as the third and fourth (set tonight) fastest time for the 1000-yard freestyle.
Meanwhile, Castro Hablutzel was not to be outdone as he also set the fourth-fastest event time for C-N as he swam a finals time of 9:31.17. This gave the Eagle a seventh-place finish in the event and makes him the fifth different Eagle to hold a top-five time for the event.
"Our team supported each other no matter what with loud cheering. Usually, first day is not our forte, but our resilience of our team shows that we want to make the most of our opportunities and tonight shows it," Taylor said.
After swimming a prelims time of 2:03.28, Meredith Ginn swam in the women's 200-yard IM finals Thursday. The senior would garner a top-five finish as she came in fourth with a finals time of 2:04.43. Ginn was joined as an event finalist by fellow senior, CJ Jensen (Copenhagen, Denmark), who swam in the event's 'B' finals.
Jensen bested her prelims time of 2:06.83 as she captured the win in the event's 'B' finals with a time of 2:05.13 and a top-10 finish for the event.
Another name for C-N fans to get to know so far in Charlotte is Hobson Stelling. After helping C-N secure third in the 200-yard medley relay, the Memphis native turned in a top-eight finish in the men's 50-yard freestyle. After securing a spot in the 'A' finals with a prelims time of 20.28, Stelling would see an eighth-place finish as he swam 20.48 in Thursday's final.
Finally, C-N finished out the night competing in the 200-yard freestyle relays. First, the women's quartet of Anna Tudor (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), Summer Osborne (Clearwater, Fla.), Chrisman Rand (Mount Pleasant, S.C.), and Antonia Sanint (Bogota, Colombia) gathered another top finish as they swam a time of 1:35.22. This was able to give C-N women's another second-place relay finish on Thursday, right behind the host school of Queens (N.C.).
Then, it was the men's turn as C-N finished third with a time of 1:20.32 turned in by Nikita Puzevich, Brandon Meier (Greeneville, S.C.), Logan Ridge McCay, and Hobson Stelling.
"I'm just glad of our team coming out and showing what we can do as a program. It was pretty cool to a couple top five times be set including from newcomers like Alonso and some veterans in Rachel for the 1000." Taylor said.
The whole Carson-Newman team will be back in action tomorrow, Feb. 11, starting at 10 a.m. with prelims for the second day of action. The event is being livestreamed by Queens University and the streaming link can be found at cneagles.com.
Be sure to keep up with the Carson-Newman swim team on C-N's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.
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